Post by Larry N. Bolch on Oct 19, 2006 19:49:44 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Click image for larger version.[/glow]Lightning can be a dramatic subject for photography, or really boring. Lightning against a totally black sky is simply some jagged lines. When put into a real-world context it takes on dimension and meaning. While it can be done with film, much trial and error with many storms will eventually give the desired results, specially if you are able to do the prints yourself. With digital cameras, you can determine the perfect settings as the storm approaches.
A tripod is vital, and you want to use the longest practical exposures to capture as many strikes as possible. Since lightning is a momentary event, auto-exposure is of no use - full manual works best with the exposure set for the foreground. Since the lightning is happening at a distance, set the focus at infinity - also no need for auto-focus. Don't worry if the lightning is too close for infinity to work, because at that point you will likely be dead anyway.
In order to get the longest exposure, I set the ISO on my Nikon Coolpix 8400 to its lowest setting - ISO50. For the first test shot, I set the shutter speed to a full minute at the smallest aperture f-8.0. At this setting, the aperture is little more than a pinhole, and with all the light sources in the picture, diffraction off the blades created too much flare. Next I tried a 30 second exposure at f-5.6 and while the flare was less, it still was more than I wanted. In the end, I settled for eight full seconds at f-2.9 - about half a stop less than wide open at f-2.6. The image was crisp and sharp.
This is a very urban area with a lot of ambient light. Were I shooting in the suburbs or country, I would have been able to use much longer exposures. I wanted to have substantial shadow detail, but still be able to retain the feeling of night. The histogram showed me that the exposure was perfect for my use.
Shooting RAW, as each exposure finished, immediately pressed the shutter release for the next. When the buffer eventually filled, I had to pause a few moments while the camera saved enough images to my card to continue. In all, I filled a 2GB card with just this one storm.
I shot from the balcony of my apartment, looking across the street. Rain came before the lightning, so I placed my tripod as far from the edge as possible, and operated the camera through an open window. When I needed to pause and clear the buffer, I also used the pause to wipe any drops from the lens. The lens is the equivalent of an 18mm super-wide, and with the enormous depth of field - even with the distance set to infinity - the drops were quite sharp.
Most of the shots had at least a glow of lighting through cloud, and two dozen or more of the 160+ exposures had actual lightning strikes. This image was the most dramatic.
When processing, I set the white balance for the ubiquitous toxic-orange street lights, which gave the sky its vivid blue colour. I did try using layers with both a neutral sky and neutral foreground, and the result was quite boring.
I had also hoped for a storm with the lighting preceding the rain, so I could shoot whole sky pictures with my fisheye lens, and unwrap them into 360° x 180° panoramas. No such luck last summer.
allnikon.proboards86.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=coolpix&thread=1156804021&page=1
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